Various builders have been commonly used in detergent compositions to serve a variety of functions, including counteracting the detrimental effects of hardness ions which arise in the wash solution, stabilization of the removed soil, pH control and the like. The ability of these builders to remove the hardness ions and improve the overall cleaning a large variety of soils and stains from other fabrics present in the typical load of laundry is of high importance in the evaluation of detergent performance.
The relative ability of each builder to meet various performance criteria is among others depending on the presence of adjunct detergent ingredients. As a consequence, the detergent formulator is faced with a difficult task of providing detergent compositions which have an excellent overall performance.
One of the types of adjunct detergent ingredients that is added to detergent compositions are dye transfer inhibiting polymers.
Said polymers are added to detergent compositions in order to inhibit the transfer of dyes from colored fabrics onto other fabrics washed therewith. These polymers have the ability to complex or adsorb the fugitive dyes washed out of dyed fabrics before the dyes have the opportunity to become attached to other articles in the wash.
Polymers have been used within detergent compositions to inhibit dye transfer. Copending European Patent Application N.degree.92202168.8 describes polyamine N-oxide containing polymers which are very efficient in eliminating transfer of solubilized or suspended dyes.
It has now been found that polyamine N-oxide containing polymers are very compatible with builders. In addition, it has been found that the overall detergency performance has been increased in the presence of certain type of builders.
This finding allows us to formulate detergent compositions which have both excellent dye transfer inhibiting properties and overall detergency performance.
According to another embodiment of this invention a process is also provided for laundering operations involving colored fabrics.